Events Fall 2011 Newsletter

The Second Annual Eater Awards

November 14th marked the second annual Eater Awards, a celebration of everything that has made America's restaurant world run—and run wild—in the past twelve months. This year Wellness in the Schools was proud to be selected as Eater's NY Charity Partner for the event. We had a great time eating and chatting with old friends like Chef John Fraser of Dovetail, and loved meeting others for the first time, including Eddie Huang of Baohaus.

Patrón Tequila made a $4,000 in kind donation in WITS' name to the event and Eater will also present WITS with a generous donation of $2,500 to support our fight against childhood obesity.

Over the past week, in each Eater city, Eater editors and readers alike voted and decided on categories including but not limited to Restaurant of the Year, So Hot Right Now, Chef of the Year, and Bartender of the Year. On Monday, November 14, the winners were feted on Eater and awards given at the gala special event in New York City. You can see reviews of the event and check out the winners online at Eater.

The Food & Wine Challenge: Chefs Make Change

Next year WITS will be working with Telepan Restaurant and Food & Wine magazine to launch a fantastic initiative: Chefs Make Change. Food & Wine magazine will partner with 10 superstar chefs and their charities from across the country to raise one million dollars, one dollar at a time, representing approximately a dollar for each F&W subscriber. The campaign will run from January 15th through February 15th, 2012.

The Chefs and Charities:

José Andrés, DC Central Kitchen/World Central Kitchen

Dan Barber, Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture

Mario Batali, The Mario Batali Foundation

Rick Bayless, Frontera Farmer Foundation

Cat Cora, Chefs for Humanity

Emeril Lagasse, Emeril Lagasse Foundation

Michel Nischan, Wholesome Wave

Art Smith, Common Threads

Bill Telepan, Wellness in the Schools

Alice Waters, The Edible Schoolyard Project

Check back with WITS for more details as the project progresses!

Eat for Kids

Our first Eat for Kids promotion, which ran for two weeks during February this year, was such a success that WITS has decided to partner up with our restaurant friends again next year. The second annual Eat for Kids promotion will be held during the first two weeks of restaurant week: January 16-January 27. WITS will include donation cards in the check presenters at participating restaurants, giving diners the option to donate to WITS at the end of their meal.

In the 2011 promotion 52 of NYC's best restaurants joined WITS and their customers donated $12,000 to support the fight against childhood obesity. To put things into perspective, $12,000 is enough to provide the WITS Labs educational program, where our trained culinary professional to lead interactive cooking and nutrition lessons in the classroom, to four schools for the entire year!

Next year we hope to beat that number by bringing back some of our favorite restaurants, including Craft and Barbuto, and adding new partners like Momofuku's noodle bar, ssäm bar, ko, má pêche and seiōbo.